Square D Co. et al. v. Niagara Frontier Tariff Bureau, Inc., et al. (476 U.S. 409)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 27, 1986 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 476 U.S. 409 · 106 S. Ct. 1922
- Decided
- May 27, 1986
- Term
- October Term 1985
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion for the Court. Petitioners have alleged that rates filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission by respondent motor carriers during the years 1966 through 1981 were fixed pursuant to an agreement forbidden by the Sherman Act, 26 Stat. 209, as amended, 15 U. S. C. § 1 et seq. The question presented is whether the carriers are subject to treble-damages liability in a private antitrust action if the allegation is true. The question requires us to give careful consideration to the way in which Congress has accommodated the sometimes conflicting policies of the antitrust laws and the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U. S. C. § 10101 et seq. (1982 ed. and Supp. II). Our analysis of the question will include three components: (1) the sufficiency of the complaint allegations in light of the bare language of the relevant statutes; (2) the impact of the Court’s decision of an analogous question in 1922 in Keogh v. Chicago & Northwestern R. Co., 260 U. S. 156; and (3) the extent to which the rule of the Keogh case remains part of our law today. I Two class-action complaints making parallel allegations against the same six defendants were filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and then transferred to Buffalo, New York, where a similar action brought by the United States was pending. The Government case was ultimately…
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